The Devils’ 2013 second-round draft pick grew up idolizing Stevens when the Hall of Famer was one of the premier physical defensemen in the NHL: and captaining the Devils to three Stanley Cups. Stevens might be a bit softer now that he’s a Devils assistant coach, but Santini was still a bit nervous to meet him last year at the team’s prospects development camp.

This year, Santini is more relaxed and trying to take is as much as he can during this week to help him in his development when he returns to Boston College for his sophomore season.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Santini said of being coached by Stevens at the camp. “I grew up idolizing him. I thought he was the man when I was younger. Last year, when I met him I was a little bit in awe, but this year I’m more able to engage with him. My second year around, I’ll a little more comfortable. So, yeah, it’s pretty awesome learning from him with his all his Stanley Cups and success. It’s pretty cool.”

In general, Santini says he feels “a lot more comfortable” at camp this year.

“You know all the guys,” he said. “You know the coaching staff. You know pretty much the routine for the day, so you feel a lot more comfortable for your second year around and I think it shows on the ice. You play with a lot more confidence.”

At 6-foot-2, 205 pounds and still growing, Santini tries to play a physical game similar to the Stevens’ style, but he’s trying to “absorb as much as I can” from all of the Devils’ coaches this week.

“Obviously, Coach Stevens has so much experience (and) Coach (Pete) DeBoer, Coach (Dave) Barr,” Santini said. “If I can pick their brains a little bit and learn from them and incorporate stuff into my game to help for next season I think it will be a successful week.”

Santini, 19, is coming off a strong freshman season in which he helped BC reach the Frozen Four and scored a goal in the Eagles 5-4 loss to Union College in the national semifinals. He was named to the All-Hockey East Rookie Team after registering three goals, eight assists and 52 penalty minutes in 35 games.

“Obviously, Boston College is a great academic school, but the hockey program’s awesome,” Santini said. “Coach (Jerry) York and Coach (assistant Greg) Brown, they were tremendous for my development. I got a lot better this year. I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to next year for sure.”

Although Boston College lost to Union (the eventual national champions) in the semifinals, Santini said it was still a great experience.

“It wasn’t quite the result we wanted, but at the same time to play on the big stage like that was really good,” said Santini, who grew up in Mahopac, N.Y. “We had a really young team last year, so I think our future’s bright and we’re going to have a really good year next year.”

Santini is also well aware of the history of Boston College players who have played for the Devils, including current Devils Cory Schneider, Stephen Gionta and Peter Harrold.

“We have a big wall at school of all the NHL guys and where they’re playing, so we, obviously, follow them,” Santini said.” The Devils, they take really good character guys and good leaders, so I think it speaks volumes about the program Coach York’s put together. He develops really good players and really good people.”

Santini also believes he benefitted from representing the United States at the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championships in Malmo, Sweden, (he had one goal and four penalty minutes in five games), though the team did not earn a medal.

“That was great, one of the best experiences of my life for sure,” he said. “Not quite the result that we wanted, but at the same time I learned a lot and it was really fun.”

Santini was invited to the U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp again this year in Lake Placid next month and is a favorite to make the team that will play in the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championships in Montreal and Toronto.

“Being up in Canada will be a lot of fun,” Santini said. “When I was a little kid, I used to always watch when it was up in Canada. So, it’s something I’m really looking forward to being a part of.”

***
The Devils prospects practiced in two groups again this morning. After a break for lunch, they will scrimmage this afternoon.

The first practice group was made up of most of the players who were drafted or already signed by the Devils with the undrafted, unsigned players inivted to the camp waiting to skate in the second group.

Forward Myles Bell skated with the first group today after being held off the ice Monday as the team eases him back into things following knee surgery. Defenseman Curtis Gedig (2009, seventh-round pick) did not skate with the first group after being held out of Monday afternoon’s scrimmage because he was “resting”, but was in the second group.

Defenseman Joe Faust (2010 fourth-round pick) also was with the second group.

The only player on the camp roster not to skate in either group was forward Brandon Shea, who was said to be "sore" after skating Monday morning and did not take part in the Monday afternoon scrimmage.

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.